The flip side of Soweto hip-hop. Probably requires a subscription to see the whole article, but as Salon is worth the loot, I'd suggest you do it. But in case you aren't moved, here's a snippet:
Tshepo Boikanyo signs his name on the dotted line and in an instant becomes the proud owner of a $70,000 BMW. The 33-year-old lawyer, dressed sharp in a black suit, glides across the floor of the BMW dealership to ogle his new car. "I considered buying a Jaguar, but I opted for the BMW after test-driving one. And this is a black dealership, so I felt I had to bring my business here," he says. Litha Nkombisa, one of the dealership's four owners, hands him a bottle of champagne and the keys to his titanium silver 525 Coupe. "You see, they take care of me here," Boikanyo says. "It's like a second home."
The entire article can be found here.
I hate being a two handed social scientist. but I've got to do it here. On the one hand, in as much there is nothing inherently revolutionary about being poor, brothers and sisters getting their loot on in South Africa is a good thing. It is ESPECIALLY good that the brothers and sisters are South African born and bred.
But on the other, neo-liberalism can only work for the bourgie. And it usually doesn't work for very long. What is striking about this article is that there is absolutely no discussion of politics in it. E. Franklin Frazier wrote the seminal text on the African American bourgeois class in Black Bourgeioisie. Perhaps it is high time someone begin to think about what a transnational black bourgeioisie would look like?
Posted by at May 2, 2004 11:57 AM | TrackBackAscension to power in South Africa went thru the youth,as you noted the absent of political content begs for the comment whats going on.
tootsie
Interesting LKS,The victory threw grass root sacrifice not even a decade old,and they talking about the haves and have not.
Posted by: tootsie at May 2, 2004 12:55 PMTootsie